Kingdom Hearts 0: HeartFall Rising
by Procyonpaw
Summary: My name is King Oswald. I am the ancestor of King Mickey. I have documented the chronicles of the FIRST KEYBLADE WAR. Before Sora, before Xehanort, there were others fighting on behalf of the light to stop an everlasting darkness. This is our story. Welcome to our Last Stand.
1. Prologue

**Hey there dear readers! Thanks for reading. This is a Kingdom Hearts fanfic that takes place during the First Keyblade War, hundreds of years before Sora's adventures. If you have any questions or confusions, please feel free to let me know asap :D**

**Just for reference, this Kingdom Hearts story will encompass or reference the following Disney / Final Fantasy worlds: Beauty And The Beast, Sleeping Beauty, Wreck-It Ralph, The Lion King, Nausicaa Of The Valley Of Wind, Halloweentown, Winnie The Pooh, Laputa Castle In The Sky, Howl's Moving Castle, Hercules, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, Final Fantasy XII, Final Fantasy XIII, Final Fantasy XV, and the regular Kingdom Hearts locales.**

**Again, thanks for reading! 3**

* * *

**Prologue**

They covet that which cannot be possessed, and we damn from our blackened hearts that which cannot be fathomed…

The fate of all begins not by chance. And it all begins here.

- _Master Siena_

* * *

**_From the secret reports of King Oswald, in the Time of the First Keyblade War_**

The heart is a most curious thing. It drives us to do most considerable things, makes us go to impossible lengths when our bodies fall. It is indeed a force that we will never fully understand.

Over the millennia, some have been born with the extremely rare and powerful **PURE HEART**. **PURE HEARTS** of Light or Darkness have been especially coveted, particularly when Kingdom Hearts and the way to make the powerful **Keyblade of Heart** were discovered.

**Kingdom Hearts**… the source of all power and knowledge in our universe. Many wanted it for themselves. These people became the Keyblade Warriors of Shadow. Many others believed no being was fit to wield such a power in their hands. These would become the Keyblade Warriors of Light. And thus erupted the First Keyblade War, a decades-long strife that had no end in sight, as we near a century into the war.

To claim Kingdom Hearts, one needs two things: a Keyblade of Heart, and the X-Blade. The Keyblade of Heart opens the door to the final resting place of Kingdom Hearts, and the X-Blade unlocks the powers and wisdom of Kingdom Hearts itself.

However, this became an impossible task, because the ingredients were impossible to come by: a great clash of light and darkness was needed to summon the X-Blade, and seven rare PURE HEARTS and a sacrificial eighth heart were needed to forge a Keyblade of Heart. There had never been an actual PURE HEART in existence for thousands of years, making it impossible to claim Kingdom Hearts. But all that was about to change.

More than twenty years ago during the Keyblade War, a woman in the land of Destiny Islands named Zion gave birth to two young boys; twins. The slightly older one was named Maxis. **They were PURE HEARTS, and thankfully, they were both PURE HEARTS of Light. **

Out of fear that the forces of darkness would covet the boys' hearts, we kept their existence a secret known only to the Royalty of Disney Castle. Not even Maxis' friends knew that he was a Price of Heart.

**Unfortunately, a PURE HEART of Light does not translate to Invincibility or Righteousness, as I found out soon enough.**

The two boys grew up in the care of Disney Castle after their parents, Zion and Astrum, were lost to the Keyblade War. After that, things were never the same.

They both volunteered to join the war effort against the tyranny and selfishness of the Keyblade Warriors of Darkness. I had hoped that these PURE HEARTed children, the Princes of Heart, could be the light that we needed to spark our victory. If anything could turn the tide, this was it.

"Maxis!" the younger brother had yelled to the elder, as Maxis turned his fourteen-year-old head. A lock of white hair was moved out of his eyes. "King Oswald is running out of troops and options.

"I still think my idea is a viable option," the younger brother mused. "If we were to resurrect an ancient enemy of the Keyblade Warriors of Light, we could defeat it, you and I! That would inspire others from other lands to do the same. Nothing unites the hearts of many like the ever-presence of evil! It's the answer to winning the war."

"We have already been over this," Maxis replied sternly. "Just because we have PURE HEARTS does not make us invincible or righteously violent. It's not a good idea."

**X**. For reasons classified, I am not at liberty to reveal the name of the other PURE HEART currently. For the time being, this document will refer to Maxis' brother as "**X**."

X, the other PURE HEART and the younger brother to Maxis. Unfortunately, Light does not equate to Goodness, though his intentions were pure. He was a troubled and more cunning and violent boy, foiling Maxis' wisdom and strength. He was vengeful over the loss of his parents. Because he had a PURE HEART, X became cocky and eventually took matters into his own hands.

One night, X deserted Disney Castle seeking more means to fight the darkness, in an attempt to fulfill his ambitious plan. He summoned a massive Heartless from the Keybladers of Shadow in the Lanes Between and attempted to bring it down, but failed. The monster crashed through the Lanes Between into Disney Castle.

By the time the rest of the castle had awoken, much of it was destroyed by the great Heartless. After hours of fighting from the Keyblade Warriors of Light and several fatalities later, the beast was eventually forced to retreat. Not even all of us could fell the monster.

None of us saw X leave, and none of us ever saw him again. We can only assume that his heart was lost to the darkness.

Just like that, the PURE HEART was gone.

Maxis took the loss of his last family heavily. He couldn't even imagine what it must be like to have perished at the hands of darkness. Now, he was the only PURE HEART left. I would take extra special precautions with him. I won't lose the only other PURE HEART.

A Prince of Heart you may be, but it does not make you invulnerable to the perils of shadow. X found this out the hard way.


	2. Prologue II

Once upon a time, in a time before time, the lands of Summa Magna lived in peace. The people bathed in the light of Kingdom Hearts, the source of all light and peace in the world. They embraced the gift of light and lived in prosperity. But this peace was not to last.

People began to fight for the light, as they wanted it for themselves. And so it was that darkness was born of their hearts. The people were free to spread their shadows.

And spread, they were…

* * *

**_Falling deeper…_**

_Underneath her feet, opened a massive circular stained-glass sculpture of a young lady sleeping along the curve of the circle. What was that strange stained-glass window she was standing on? Was it her? _

_Looking around, there was nothing more than darkness. __**So much to do, so little time…**_

**_The door is still shut. _**

_The lady looked around more. What on earth was giving her these strange commands? What were the cryptic messages? What was this strange and dark place? She tried to talk to whatever had said that, but she soon found she had no voice. _

_She was wearing some very strange clothes. They felt dense and tight on her, as if it were armor or something. _

**_Power untold sleeps inside you. Choose well…_**

_Again she tried to open her mouth to speak, but she choked on the words and no sound came out. From three equidistant places on the circular glass pane, appeared a sword, a shield and a wand. She looked around at all three, as if they beckoned to her for her taking. Slowly, she inched her way over to the shield, reaching for it…_

_A great marble door lay right in front of her, as she turned around, leaving the shield. However, as she took a step forward to step towards the door, a part of the stained glass circle underneath her feet cracked in a loud __**crash**__. Shadows seeped through the cracks of the glass floor, wrapping around her legs and stealing her breath away. _

_More cracks appeared in the glass, as more shadows emerged from the crevices, circling around the girl until almost half of the entire glass circle had broken. Unbeknownst to the girl, that stained glass circle was a manifestation of her heart. She was in a __**Dive Into her own Heart**__. _

_And she then learned the simple fact that without a voice, you cannot scream… _


	3. Chapter 1: Fever's Dream Castle Oblivion

**Chapter 1 Fever's Dream**

Her eyes snapped open as she woke in a start.

Still laying down, she noticed several strange things. First, she was not in a bed, she was in a sterile, eerily white room that she didn't recognize at all. Looking around, everything was practically glowing with ethereal radiance. Not a single thing about the room was not completely washed in white.

Next, she was lying down in tiles, face-first, next to a white rack that was covered in a white sheet. Pulling off the sheet, she gasped softly as underneath the sheet was full of… swords? What on earth were weapons doing in this room? The weapons unnerved her…

_I must have fallen asleep while standing next to them,_ she thought to herself. _I was sleeping in an odd position after all._

The last thing she noticed sent a chill down her spine. She could not remember a thing. Not where she was, what she was doing in this strange room, or even her _name_, for that matter. What on earth was going on?

Seeing no use in laying down further, she got up. Hearing running water somewhere, she walked over to what appeared to be a bathroom. She approached a mirror and noted what she looked like. Light pale, choppy blue hair tied in the back, fair skin, pouty lips, burgundy eyes… and she was wearing a pale white summer dress-like gown.

Moving her arm, she clenched her hand, and realized she was clutching something in it. Opening her gloved hand, it was a small, star-shaped trinket made of dark blue crystal. What on earth was it?

Suddenly, an image of two blurred faces flashed through her mind, but the next instant, it was gone. They seemed so familiar, and yet so far-off at the same time.

Leaving the bathroom, she walked into a large bedroom, which was much darker than all the other rooms, lit by a single lamp. It had a desk with several items strewn about it. Several photos were there, but none of her. One photo had two armored individuals wielding what appeared to be giant Keys, fighting each other over a giant spectral heart in the sky.

She then noticed a small piece of paper with some words written on it. **_You are the one who will open the door._** More cryptic messages, she thought to herself.

_Clunk_

Upon hearing something, the girl whirled around, frightened, but there was nothing there. She looked around more, to no avail.

"Hello?" she called. No response but the eerie silence. "I-is anyone there?"

Suddenly, she felt herself drowning in ice-cold darkness. Nearly passing out from the shock, she steeled herself and turned to face what had caused it.

It was a strange being that was completely shrouded in darkness. It had a hollow, heart-shaped hole in its chest, and was shuddering very strangely.

"**Heartless—**" the girl gasped. That word had just come into her head for some reason. Still, she didn't wait to find out what it could do. She ran away from it as quickly as she could.

It was no use, the Heartless monster caught up with her in an instant, as it reached for the girl's heart. The Heartless still reaching inside her chest, the girl reached for the white rack of swords and drew one to face the heartless.

"Back off!" she yelled, as she swung the intricate white sword at the Heartless. However, she gasped as the sword flew right through the Heartless, not even scratching the monster. She swung again and again, but the ghostly Heartless advanced and advanced on her.

"Agh! Help!" she yelled as the monster closed the gap between them.

**_Weapons of metal and magic will never penetrate the darkness. But where steel and spells fail, the heart shall prevail. _**

"Who said that? Help me!" the girl yelled as the monster again reached for her heart. However, her right arm began to glow a blinding white light.

**_Remember, your heart is the most powerful weapon of all._**

As the light faded, the girl opened her eyes. In her right arm, she held what appeared to be a gigantic, sharp key in the image of a sword. The Heartless backed away a step, as if it feared the incandescent weapon.

"A key… or a sword?" the girl asked aloud in wonder. The bladed weapon was glowing white from its dark blue and silver tints.

**_The Nightfall Keyblade. The first Keyblade to be forged from heart. Against a weapon of heart, the darkness does not stand a chance. _**

The girl didn't need to be told twice. Jumping up towards the defensive Heartless, she swung the Keyblade. This time, the blow connected as she struck the monster several times. Glowing arcs trailed the Keyblade's strokes as she struck the Heartless.

Soon, the monster faded to blackness and was destroyed, leaving a red heart levitating on the ground. Soon, that too disappeared.

Satisfied that the monster was gone, the girl examined her Keyblade again. A Keyblade, forged from… heart? What was that supposed to mean?

"Night…fall…" she whispered as the keyblade glowed again and disappeared from her hand. Slightly startled, she flicked her wrist back and forth, but the keyblade that would not reappear. Looking around, she decided to start looking for an exit from the strange white room.

Suddenly, all the bright windows in the room suddenly shattered as the girl shielded her eyes from the shrapnel. She could hear all sorts of noises of people entering the room. When she opened her eyes, she saw several black-hooded figures darting around the room, and opening hidden panels to the house. Try as she might, she couldn't see a single person's face. Bright lights flashed everywhere and some slight sirens could be heard.

One black-hooded person advanced towards her and put his arms on the girl's shoulders. Urgently, the black-hooded person shook as he talked.

"Tell me how," he implored. "Report."

Panicked and confused, the girl simply sputtered in response to the hooded guy, only managing to form a convoluted "What?" in response.

"I said, report! Please, tell us what happened!" the hooded man urged. The girl, still, could not formulate a response. She had no clue as to what was happening around her.

"Calm down, Maxis," another hooded individual urged, who held a clipboard. After a moment's hesitation, the hooded guy let the girl go. "She's just had her heart tampered with. Her Chain of Memories must be shattered. She probably doesn't remember a thing."

The second hooded figure then walked over to the girl and the other hooded individual, and removed the hood from their head. Under the hood was a young lady with dirty blonde hair and an excited-looking smile on her face. The girl wondered if this hooded girl had any answers for her. As if on cue, the hooded girl began to speak, ignoring the mayhem of the other hooded figures in the background.

"You don't remember me yet," she said to the girl. "My name's Knell. This here is Maxis. We're your best friends, Siena."


End file.
